Skeptalk: Gay Conversion Therapy (You Make Me Sick)

As the country debates the issues of Marriage Equality, gays in the military, and other forms of inclusion of gays and lesbians into mainstream society, fringe religious and therapeutic organizations have operated mostly in the shadows, attempting to "convert" their homosexual clients to heterosexuality through a mixture of prayer and pseudoscience.

In this talk, associate professor of psychology Sheldon W. Helms describes the history of attempts to define homosexuality as an illness and to make gays go straight. He details such aspects as: the goals and viewpoints of those involved in Gay Conversion Therapy; their pseudoscientific and sometimes dangerous practices; and a description of the results of over 100 years of attempts to alter sexual orientation.

---------------------------

Sheldon W. Helms is an associate professor of psychology at Ohlone College in Fremont, CA. He has taught psychology for more than 16 years, and teaches a wide range of topics including Abnormal Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Social Psychology, and Human Sexuality. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Bay Area Skeptics, and is the founder of the Ohlone Psychology Club Speaker Series through which he regularly hosts top name speakers in science and skepticism.